Sunday, May 19, WiK had the great pleasure of welcoming the prolific Allen S. Weiss back again on one of his annual visits to Kyoto. Covid had prevented him from coming for two years, so it was good to hear he would be revisiting. He has confessed that he never joins clubs or societies, but …Read More
Tag: Allen S. Weiss
by Allen S. Weiss My desire to return to Kyoto has been frustrated for over two years due to the covid epidemic, just as work on my most recent book project, Illusory Dwellings: A Kyoto Travelogue, has been stalled for the same reason. But there are many ways to travel. A voyage has neither beginning …Read More
When is Ryōan-ji not Ryōan-ji? At what point does representation become abstraction, or does one thing morph into something totally different? John Cage loved stones, and collected them from all over the world. He also loved Ryōan-ji from the moment he saw it during his first trip to Japan in 1962. In 1983 Cage began …Read More
Radio Gidayū Created by Allen S. Weiss and Daisuke Ishida for the Klangkunst program of Deutschlandradio Kultur Berlin, 2014, commissioned by Marcus Gammel, Radio Gidayū is simultaneously a soundscape of Kyoto, a sonic travel diary, the evocation of a utopian space, and a work of musique concrète. It is inspired by the art of gidayū, …Read More
“Teddy and Daruma” by Allen S. Weiss Like the shaman from his cave, Teddy (yes, Teddy, my teddy bear!) finally emerged, resurrected after a hibernation of forty years, with what particular wisdom I cannot say. I have no idea if Teddy is an adept of Zen, but I am sure that the roly-poly Daruma who …Read More
Allen S. Weiss is known to many in Kyoto through his books on aesthetics, and in recent years he has given well-received talks on the subject (see here). His latest book has now appeared, and he has generously agreed for us to reprint the Preface below as well as providing samples of the always exceptional …Read More
News of a forthcoming book by WiK member, Allen Weiss, who was recently in Nice at the time of the terrorist atrocity there. Luckily he was nowhere near the events, though he witnessed some of the great commotion going on. Meanwhile, Allen’s latest book is making its way through the final stages of the publishing …Read More
Manifesto for the Future of Landscape (photos by Allen S. Weiss) The dry garden of Ryōan-ji is one of the most analysed and photographed works of art in the world. Thus, well before my first visit in November 2006, I felt I knew the garden intimately, and was thoroughly prepared to elaborate on the knowledge …Read More
Kyoto Writing Competition
WiK Anthologies
The Nature of Kyoto (2023)
Eds. Lisa Twaronite Sone & Robert Weis
Foreword by Pico Iyer
Structures of Kyoto (2021)
Eds: Rebecca Otowa & Karen Lee Tawarayama
Foreword by Judith Clancy
Encounters with Kyoto (2019)
Eds: Jann Williams & Ian Josh Yates
Foreword by Juliet Winters Carpenter
Echoes (2017)
Eds: John Dougill, Amy Chavez, & Mark Richardson
Preface by Alex Kerr
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